Toward the close of Daniel's life great changes were
taking place in the land to which, over threescore years
before, he and his Hebrew companions had been carried
captive. Nebuchadnezzar, "the terrible of the nations"
(Ezekiel 28:7), had died, and Babylon, "the praise of the
whole earth" (Jeremiah 51:41), had passed under the unwise
rule of his successors, and gradual but sure dissolution was
resulting.
Through the folly and weakness of Belshazzar, the grandson
of Nebuchadnezzar, proud Babylon was soon to fall.
Admitted in his youth to a share in kingly authority, Belshazzar
gloried in his power and lifted up his heart against
the God of heaven. Many had been his opportunities to
know the divine will and to understand his responsibility
of rendering obedience thereto. He had known of his
grandfather's banishment, by the decree of God, from the
society of men; and he was familiar with Nebuchadnezzar's
conversion and miraculous restoration. But Belshazzar
allowed the love of pleasure and self-glorification to efface
the lessons that he should never have forgotten. He wasted
the opportunities graciously granted him, and neglected to
use the means within his reach for becoming more fully
acquainted with truth. That which Nebuchadnezzar had
finally gained at the cost of untold suffering and humiliation,
Belshazzar passed by with indifference.
It was not long before reverses came. Babylon was
besieged by Cyrus, nephew of Darius the Mede, and commanding
general of the combined armies of the Medes and
Persians. But within the seemingly impregnable fortress,
with its massive walls and its gates of brass, protected by the
river Euphrates, and stocked with provision in abundance,
the voluptuous monarch felt safe and passed his time in mirth
and revelry.
In his pride and arrogancy, with a reckless feeling of
security Belshazzar "made a great feast to a thousand of
his lords, and drank wine before the thousand." All the
attractions that wealth and power could command, added
splendor to the scene. Beautiful women with their enchantments
were among the guests in attendance at the royal
banquet. Men of genius and education were there. Princes
and statesmen drank wine like water and reveled under
its maddening influence.
With reason dethroned through shameless intoxication,
and with lower impulses and passions now in the ascendancy,
the king himself took the lead in the riotous orgy. As the
feast progressed, he "commanded to bring the golden and
silver vessels which . . . Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of
the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king, and his
princes, his wives, and his concubines, might drink therein."
The king would prove that nothing was too sacred for his
hands to handle. "They brought the golden vessels; . . .
and the king, and his princes, his wives, and his concubines,
drank in them. They drank wine, and praised the gods of
gold, and of silver, of brass, of iron, of wood, and of stone."
Little did Belshazzar think that there was a heavenly
Witness to his idolatrous revelry; that a divine Watcher,
unrecognized, looked upon the scene of profanation, heard
the sacrilegious mirth, beheld the idolatry. But soon the
uninvited Guest made His presence felt. When the revelry
was at its height a bloodless hand came forth and traced
upon the walls of the palace characters that gleamed like
fire--words which, though unknown to the vast throng,
were a portent of doom to the now conscience-stricken king
and his guests.
Hushed was the boisterous mirth, while men and women,
seized with nameless terror, watched the hand slowly tracing
the mysterious characters. Before them passed, as in
panoramic view, the deeds of their evil lives; they seemed
to be arraigned before the judgment bar of the eternal God,
whose power they had just defied. Where but a few moments
before had been hilarity and blasphemous witticism, were
pallid faces and cries of fear. When God makes men fear,
they cannot hide the intensity of their terror.
Belshazzar was the most terrified of them all. He it
was who above all others had been responsible for the
rebellion against God which that night had reached its
height in the Babylonian realm. In the presence of the
unseen Watcher, the representative of Him whose power
had been challenged and whose name had been blasphemed,
the king was paralyzed with fear. Conscience was awakened.
"The joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote
one against another." Belshazzar had impiously lifted himself
up against the God of heaven and had trusted in his
own might, not supposing that any would dare say, "Why
doest thou thus?" but now he realized that he must render
an account of the stewardship entrusted him, and that for
his wasted opportunities and his defiant attitude he could
offer no excuse.
In vain the king tried to read the burning letters. But
here was a secret he could not fathom, a power he could
neither understand nor gainsay. In despair he turned to
the wise men of his realm for help. His wild cry rang out
in the assembly, calling upon the astrologers, the Chaldeans,
and the soothsayers to read the writing. "Whosoever shall
read this writing," he promised, "and show me the interpretation
thereof, shall be clothed with scarlet, and have a chain
of gold about his neck, and shall be the third ruler in the
kingdom." But of no avail was his appeal to his trusted
advisers, with offers of rich awards. Heavenly wisdom cannot
be bought or sold. "All the king's wise men . . . could
not read the writing, nor make known to the king the
interpretation thereof." They were no more able to read
the mysterious characters than had been the wise men of a
former generation to interpret the dreams of Nebuchadnezzar.
Then the queen mother remembered Daniel, who, over
half a century before, had made known to King Nebuchadnezzar
the dream of the great image and its interpretation.
"O king, live forever," she said. "Let not thy thoughts
trouble thee, nor let thy countenance be changed: there is
a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy
gods; and in the days of thy father light and understanding
and wisdom, like the wisdom of the gods, was found in
him; whom the king Nebuchadnezzar . . . made master
of the magicians, astrologers, Chaldeans, and soothsayers;
forasmuch as an excellent spirit, and knowledge, and
understanding, interpreting of dreams, and showing of hard
sentences, and dissolving of doubts, were found in the same
Daniel, whom the king named Belteshazzar: now let Daniel
be called, and he will show the interpretation.
"Then was Daniel brought in before the king." Making
an effort to regain his composure, Belshazzar said to the
prophet: "Art thou that Daniel, which art of the children
of the captivity of Judah, whom the king my father brought
out of Jewry? I have even heard of thee, that the spirit of
the gods is in thee, and that light and understanding and
excellent wisdom is found in thee. And now the wise men,
the astrologers, have been brought in before me, that they
should read this writing, and make known unto me the
interpretation thereof: but they could not show the interpretation
of the thing: and I have heard of thee, that thou
canst make interpretations, and dissolve doubts: now if thou
canst read the writing, and make known to me the interpretation
thereof, thou shalt be clothed with scarlet, and have
a chain of gold about thy neck, and shalt be the third ruler
in the kingdom."
Before that terror-stricken throng, Daniel, unmoved by
the promises of the king, stood in the quiet dignity of a
servant of the Most High, not to speak words of flattery, but
to interpret a message of doom. "Let thy gifts be to thyself,"
he said, "and give thy rewards to another; yet I will
read the writing unto the king, and make known to him
the interpretation."
The prophet first reminded Belshazzar of matters with
which he was familiar, but which had not taught him the
lesson of humility that might have saved him. He spoke
of Nebuchadnezzar's sin and fall, and of the Lord's dealings
with him--the dominion and glory bestowed upon him,
the divine judgment for his pride, and his subsequent
acknowledgment of the power and mercy of the God of
Israel; and then in bold and emphatic words he rebuked
Belshazzar for his great wickedness. He held the king's sin
up before him, showing him the lessons he might have
learned but did not. Belshazzar had not read aright the experience
of his grandfather, nor heeded the warning of events
so significant to himself. The opportunity of knowing and
obeying the true God had been given him, but had not been
taken to heart, and he was about to reap the consequence
of his rebellion.
"Thou, . . . O Belshazzar," the prophet declared, "hast
not humbled thine heart, though thou knewest all this; but
hast lifted up thyself against the Lord of heaven; and they
have brought the vessels of His house before thee, and thou,
and thy lords, thy wives, and thy concubines, have drunk wine
in them; and thou hast praised the gods of silver, and gold,
of brass, iron, wood, and stone, which see not, nor hear, nor
know: and the God in whose hand thy breath is, and whose
are all thy ways, hast thou not glorified: then was the part
of the hand set from Him; and this writing was written."
Turning to the Heaven-sent message on the wall, the
prophet read, "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin."
The hand that had traced the characters was no longer
visible, but these four words were still gleaming forth with
terrible distinctness; and now with bated breath the people
listened while the aged prophet declared:
"This is the interpretation of the thing: Mene; God
hath numbered thy kingdom, and finished it. Tekel;
Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.
Peres; Thy kingdom is divided, and given to the Medes
and Persians."
In that last night of mad folly, Belshazzar and his lords
had filled up the measure of their guilt and the guilt of
the Chaldean kingdom. No longer could God's restraining
hand ward off the impending evil. Through manifold
providences, God had sought to teach them reverence for
His law. "We would have healed Babylon," He declared of
those whose judgment was now reaching unto heaven,
"but she is not healed." Jeremiah 51:9. Because of the
strange perversity of the human heart, God had at last found
it necessary to pass the irrevocable sentence. Belshazzar
was to fall, and his kingdom was to pass into other hands.
As the prophet ceased speaking, the king commanded
that he be awarded the promised honors; and in harmony
with this, "they clothed Daniel with scarlet, and put a chain
of gold about his neck, and made a proclamation concerning
him, that he should be the third ruler in the kingdom."
More than a century before, Inspiration had foretold that
"the night of . . . pleasure" during which king and counselors
would vie with one another in blasphemy against God,
would suddenly be changed into a season of fear and
destruction. And now, in rapid succession, momentous
events followed one another exactly as had been portrayed
in the prophetic scriptures years before the principals in the
drama had been born.
While still in the festal hall, surrounded by those whose
doom has been sealed, the king is informed by a messenger
that "his city is taken" by the enemy against whose devices
he had felt so secure; "that the passages are stopped, . . .
and the men of war are affrighted." Verses 31, 32. Even
while he and his nobles were drinking from the sacred vessels
of Jehovah, and praising their gods of silver and of gold,
the Medes and the Persians, having turned the Euphrates
out of its channel, were marching into the heart of the
unguarded city. The army of Cyrus now stood under the
walls of the palace; the city was filled with the soldiers of
the enemy, "as with caterpillars" (verse 14); and their
triumphant shouts could be heard above the despairing cries
of the astonished revelers.
"In that night was Belshazzar the king of the Chaldeans
slain," and an alien monarch sat upon the throne.
Clearly had the Hebrew prophets spoken concerning the
manner in which Babylon should fall. As in vision God had
revealed to them the events of the future, they had exclaimed:
"How is Sheshach taken! and how is the praise of the whole
earth surprised! how is Babylon become an astonishment
among the nations!" "How is the hammer of the whole
earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a
desolation among the nations!" "At the noise of the taking
of Babylon the earth is moved, and the cry is heard among
the nations."
"Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed." "The spoiler
is come upon her, even upon Babylon, and her mighty men
are taken, every one of their bows is broken: for the Lord
God of recompenses shall surely requite. And I will make
drunk her princes, and her wise men, her captains, and her
rulers, and her mighty men: and they shall sleep a perpetual
sleep, and not wake, saith the King, whose name is
the Lord of hosts."
"I have laid a snare for thee, and thou art also taken, O
Babylon, and thou wast not aware: thou art found, and
also caught, because thou hast striven against the Lord. The
Lord hath opened His armory, and hath brought forth the
weapons of His indignation: for this is the work of the
Lord God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans."
"Thus saith the Lord of hosts; The children of Israel and
the children of Judah were oppressed together: and all that
took them captives held them fast; they refused to let them
go. Their Redeemer is strong; the Lord of hosts is His
name: He shall throughly plead their cause, that He may
give rest to the land, and disquiet the inhabitants of Babylon."
Jeremiah 51:41; 50:23, 46; 51:8, 56, 57; 50:24, 25, 33, 34.
Thus "the broad walls of Babylon" became "utterly
broken, and her high gates. . . burned with fire." Thus
did Jehovah of hosts "cause the arrogancy of the proud to
cease," and lay low "the haughtiness of the terrible." Thus
did "Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the
Chaldees' excellency," become as Sodom and Gomorrah--
a place forever accursed. "It shall never be inhabited,"
Inspiration has declared, "neither shall it be dwelt in from
generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch
tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.
But wild beasts of the desert shall lie there; and their houses
shall be full of doleful creatures; and owls shall dwell there,
and satyrs shall dance there. And the wild beasts of the
islands shall cry in their desolate houses, and dragons in
their pleasant palaces." "I will also make it a possession for
the bittern, and pools of water: and I will sweep it with
the besom of destruction, saith the Lord of hosts." Jeremiah
51:58; Isaiah 13:11, 19-22; 14:23.
To the last ruler of Babylon, as in type to its first, had
come the sentence of the divine Watcher: "O king, . . . to
thee it is spoken; The kingdom is departed from thee." Daniel 4:31.
"Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon,
Sit on the ground: there is no throne. . . .
Sit thou silent,
And get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans:
For thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.
"I was wroth with My people,
I have polluted Mine inheritance, and given them into
thine hand:
Thou didst show them no mercy; . . .
"And thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever:
So that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart,
Neither didst remember the latter end of it.
"Therefore hear now this,
Thou that art given to pleasures
That dwellest carelessly,
That sayest in thine heart,
I am, and none else beside me;
I shall not sit as a widow,
Neither shall I know the loss of children: . . .
"These two things shall come to thee in a moment in
one day,
The loss of children, and widowhood:
They shall come upon thee in their perfection for the
multitude of thy sorceries, and for the great
abundance of thine enchantments.
For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness:
Thou hast said, None seeth me.
"Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee;
And thou hast said in thine heart,
I am, and none else beside me.
Therefore shall evil come upon thee;
Thou shalt not know from whence it riseth:
And mischief shall fall upon thee;
Thou shalt not be able to put it off:
And desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which
thou shalt not know.
"Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the
multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast
labored from thy youth;
If so be thou shalt be able to profit,
If so be thou mayest prevail.
"Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels.
Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly
prognosticators,
Stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come
upon thee.
Behold, they shall be as stubble; . . .
They shall not deliver themselves from the power of the
flame: . . .
None shall save thee." Isaiah 47:1-15.
Every nation that has come upon the stage of action has
been permitted to occupy its place on the earth, that the fact
might be determined whether it would fulfill the purposes
of the Watcher and the Holy One. Prophecy has traced
the rise and progress of the world's great empires--Babylon,
Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. With each of these, as
with the nations of less power, history has repeated itself.
Each has had its period of test; each has failed, its glory
faded, its power departed.
While nations have rejected God's principles, and in this
rejection have wrought their own ruin, yet a divine, overruling
purpose has manifestly been at work throughout
the ages. It was this that the prophet Ezekiel saw in the
wonderful representation given him during his exile in the
land of the Chaldeans, when before his astonished gaze were
portrayed the symbols that revealed an overruling Power
that has to do with the affairs of earthly rulers.
Upon the banks of the river Chebar, Ezekiel beheld a
whirlwind seeming to come from the north, "a great cloud,
and a fire infolding itself, and a brightness was about it,
and out of the midst thereof as the color of amber." A
number of wheels intersecting one another were moved by
four living beings. High above all these "was the likeness
of a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire stone: and upon
the likeness of the throne was the likeness as the appearance
of a man above upon it." "And there appeared in the
cherubims the form of a man's hand under their wings."
Ezekiel 1:4, 26; 10:8. The wheels were so complicated in
arrangement that at first sight they appeared to be in confusion;
yet they moved in perfect harmony. Heavenly beings,
sustained and guided by the hand beneath the wings of the
cherubim, were impelling those wheels; above them, upon
the sapphire throne, was the Eternal One; and round about
the throne was a rainbow, the emblem of divine mercy.
As the wheellike complications were under the guidance
of the hand beneath the wings of the cherubim, so the complicated
play of human events is under divine control.
Amidst the strife and tumult of nations He that sitteth above
the cherubim still guides the affairs of this earth.
The history of nations speaks to us today. To every nation
and to every individual God has assigned a place in His
great plan. Today men and nations are being tested by the
plummet in the hand of Him who makes no mistake. All
are by their own choice deciding their destiny, and God is
overruling all for the accomplishment of His purposes.
The prophecies which the great I am has given in His
word, uniting link after link in the chain of events, from
eternity in the past to eternity in the future, tell us where
we are today in the procession of the ages and what may be
expected in the time to come. All that prophecy has foretold
as coming to pass, until the present time, has been
traced on the pages of history, and we may be assured that
all which is yet to come will be fulfilled in its order.
Today the signs of the times declare that we are standing
on the threshold of great and solemn events. Everything
in our world is in agitation. Before our eyes is fulfilling the
Saviour's prophecy of the events to precede His coming:
"Ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. . . . Nation
shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:
and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes,
in divers places." Matthew 24:6, 7.
The present is a time of overwhelming interest to all
living. Rulers and statesmen, men who occupy positions of
trust and authority, thinking men and women of all classes,
have their attention fixed upon the events taking place
about us. They are watching the relations that exist among
the nations. They observe the intensity that is taking possession
of every earthly element, and they recognize that
something great and decisive is about to take place--that
the world is on the verge of a stupendous crisis.
The Bible, and the Bible only, gives a correct view of these
things. Here are revealed the great final scenes in the history
of our world, events that already are casting their shadows
before, the sound of their approach causing the earth to
tremble and men's hearts to fail them for fear.
"Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh
it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad
the inhabitants thereof; . . . because they have transgressed
the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they
that dwell therein are desolate." Isaiah 24:1-6.
"Alas for the day! for the day of the Lord is at hand, and
as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come. . . . The
seed is rotten under their clods, the garners are laid desolate,
the barns are broken down; for the corn is withered. How
do the beasts groan! the herds of cattle are perplexed, because
they have no pasture; yea, the flocks of sheep are made
desolate." The vine is dried up, and the fig tree languisheth;
the pomegranate tree, the palm tree also, and the apple
tree, even all the trees of the field, are withered: because
joy is withered away from the sons of men." Joel 1:15-18, 12.
"I am pained at my very heart; . . . I cannot hold my
peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of
the trumpet, the alarm of war. Destruction upon destruction
is cried; for the whole land is spoiled." Jeremiah 4:19, 20.
"Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is
even the time of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out
of it." Jeremiah 30:7.
"Because thou hast made the Lord, which is my refuge,
Even the Most High, thy habitation;
There shall no evil befall thee,
Neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling."
Psalm 91:9, 10.
"O daughter of Zion, . . . the Lord shall redeem thee
from the hand of thine enemies. Now also many nations
are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and
let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts
of the Lord, neither understand they His counsel." Micah
4:10-12. God will not fail His church in the hour of her
greatest peril. He has promised deliverance. "I will bring
again the captivity of Jacob's tents," He has declared, "and
have mercy on his dwelling places." Jeremiah 30:18.
Then will the purpose of God be fulfilled; the principles
of His kingdom will be honored by all beneath the sun.